Q&A: Elaine Read and Matt Weyandt of Xocolatl Chocolate
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Elaine Read and Matt Weyandt haven’t always been chocolatiers—but they have always been concerned with making the world a better place. When they first discovered the world of single-origin chocolate after moving to Costa Rica in 2013, Elaine had just left a decade-long career working with organizations like the Peace Corps, Relief International, and CARE, and Matt, a role as the campaign manager for Congressman John Lewis (before that, he was Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Georgia).
Meeting cacao farmers and chocolate makers was an eye-opening experience. They came to know the crop as not only an agricultural product with flavors nuanced by genetic variety and terroir, but also as part of an industry dealing with a number of issues like economic equity, environmental protection, and social justice. After committing themselves to a life of crafting chocolate, they evolved from a makeshift operation in their apartment and selling at farmers markets, to opening a 400-square-foot stall at Krog Street Market that doubled as a retail shop and “micro-factory,” to now having a separate, spacious 3,500-square-foot facility for their entire production.
Today, their business is still rooted in social and environmental responsibility, making them a shoe-in for the Snail of Approval award. Here, we heard from Elaine and Matt about why they support Slow Food, sourcing and producing fairly, and becoming a carbon neutral business.
Why do you support Slow Food?
The Slow Food principles of good, clean, and fair food for all are the same things that drew us from our previous careers in international relief and progressive campaign work to making chocolate. We’ve always believed that fair conditions and pay for producers, fighting climate change and protecting the environment, and access to wholesome, local food are all central to building the type of world we want for our children.
What aspects of your business' practices align with Slow Food’s mission and values?
We were drawn to chocolate because we saw how it related to all of these other issues we cared about. From buying sustainably grown cacao at above-Fair Trade prices directly from farmer cooperatives, providing health insurance to our Atlanta staff, or measuring and offsetting our carbon footprint, our goal is to build a chocolate company that lives up to our own ideals—which just happen to line up with Slow Food’s mission and values pretty perfectly.
What are other businesses you admire that are practicing good, clean, and fair values?
On a big scale, Patagonia is always pushing the envelope on sustainability issues. Locally there are amazing restaurants and food businesses around town that go out of their way to source good, clean, and fair (and local!) food. Osono Bread is awesome. Places like Little Bear, Little Tart, Talat Market, Miller Union, Fresh Harvest… basically everyone on the Snail of Approval list!
What goals do you have related to being a more good, clean, and fair business?
Climate change and our impact on the environment has always been front and center for us, but for the past 2 years, we’ve tried to take a more analytical approach. In 2021, we completed a life cycle analysis (LCA) of our chocolate production process. An LCA measures the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are released in the process of making a bar of our chocolate—and we included everything.
We gathered information from farmers (on 3 different continents) on the vehicles they use to transport beans to the fermentary, from the mill that makes the paper for our wrappers (good news, they’re 100% recycled paper made in a factory powered by 100% renewable energy), from our own power bills, and dozens of other inputs to calculate the total emissions related to making a bar of chocolate. Once we calculated the results we began working to reduce our carbon footprint and to offset what we couldn’t reduce through things like renewable energy and carbon credits. We’re confident that we’ve gone a little overboard in the pursuit of becoming a carbon neutral business, but we’re still finishing up the certification process. We hope to be officially carbon neutral certified by CarbonNeutral.org by the end of the summer.
What does it mean to you to have won the Snail of Approval award?
It’s confirmation for us that we’re on the right track and it’s inspiring to see the work of the other Snail of Approval winners. It’s also a great reminder for us that there’s always more we can do. The saying around Xocolatl is, “There is no finish line.”